Ceawlin ( ;Flom, G. T. (1930:171). Introductory Old English Grammar and Reader. United Kingdom: D.C. Heath. also spelled Ceaulin, Caelin, Celin, died ca. 593) was a King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic of Wessex, whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle represents as the leader of the first group of Saxons to come to the land which later became Wessex. Ceawlin was active during the last years of the Anglo-Saxon expansion, with little of southern England remaining in the control of the native Britons by the time of his death.
The chronology of Ceawlin's life is highly uncertain. The historical accuracy and dating of many of the events in the later Anglo-Saxon Chronicle have been called into question, and his reign is variously listed as lasting seven, seventeen, or thirty-two years.Stenton, p. 29, accepts the date given for Ceawlin's accession in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 560, but Barbara Yorke in her online DNB article on Ceawlin states that his reign seems to have been deliberately lengthened. The Chronicle records several battles of Ceawlin's between the years 556 and 592, including the first record of a battle between different groups of Anglo-Saxons, and indicates that under Ceawlin Wessex acquired significant territory, some of which was later to be lost to other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Ceawlin is also named as one of the eight "bretwaldas", a title given in the Chronicle to eight rulers who had overlordship over southern Britain, although the extent of Ceawlin's control is not known.
Ceawlin died in 593, having been deposed the year before, possibly by his successor, Ceol. He is recorded in various sources as having two sons, Cutha and Cuthwine, but the genealogies in which this information is found are known to be unreliable.
Historical context The history of the sub-Roman period in Britain is poorly sourced and the subject of a number of important disagreements among historians. It appears, however, that in the fifth century, raids on Britain by continental peoples developed into migrations. The newcomers included Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians. These peoples captured territory in the east and south of England, but at about the end of the fifth century, a British victory at the battle of Mons Badonicus halted the Anglo-Saxon advance for fifty years.Hunter Blair, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 13–16.Campbell et al., The Anglo-Saxons, p. 23. Near the year 550, however, the British began to lose ground once more, and within twenty-five years, it appears that control of almost all of southern England was in the hands of the invaders.Hunter Blair (Roman Britain, p. 204) gives the twenty-five years from 550 to 575 as the dates of the final conquest.
The peace following the battle of Mons Badonicus is attested partly by Gildas, a monk, who wrote De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae or On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain during the middle of the sixth century. This essay is a polemic against corruption and Gildas provides little in the way of names and dates. He appears, however, to state that peace had lasted from the year of his birth to the time he was writing.Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 2–7. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the other main source that bears on this period, in particular in an entry for the year 827 that records a list of the kings who bore the title "bretwalda", or "Britain-ruler". That list shows a gap in the early sixth century that matches Gildas's version of events.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 60–61
Ceawlin's reign belongs to the period of Anglo-Saxon expansion at the end of the sixth century. Though there are many unanswered questions about the chronology and activities of the early West Saxon rulers, it is clear that Ceawlin was one of the key figures in the final Anglo-Saxon conquest of southern Britain.Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 30.
Early West Saxon sources The two main written sources for early West Saxon history are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List. The Chronicle is a set of annals which were compiled near the year 890, during the reign of King Alfred the Great of Wessex.Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred the Great, p. 41. They record earlier material for the older entries, which were assembled from earlier annals that no longer survive, as well as from saga material that might have been transmitted orally.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. xixYorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 132. The Chronicle dates the arrival of the future "West Saxons" in Britain to 495, when Cerdic and his son, Cynric, land at Cerdices ora, or Cerdic's shore. Almost twenty annals describing Cerdic's campaigns and those of his descendants appear interspersed through the next hundred years of entries in the Chronicle.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 50–51.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 14–21 Although these annals provide most of what is known about Ceawlin, the historicity of many of the entries is uncertain.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 55
The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List is a list of rulers of Wessex, including the lengths of their reigns. It survives in several forms, including as a preface to the [B] manuscript of the Chronicle.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. xxii.Lapidge, Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 388. Like the Chronicle, the List was compiled in its present form during the reign of Alfred the Great, but an earlier version of the List was also one of the sources of the Chronicle itself. Both the list and the Chronicle are influenced by the desire of their writers to use a single line of descent to trace the lineage of the Kings of Wessex through Cerdic to Gewis, the legendary eponymous ancestor of the West Saxons, who is made to descend from Woden. The result served the political purposes of the scribe but is riddled with contradictions for historians.D.P. Kirby (Earliest English Kings, p. 49) refers to the combination of the Chronicle and the Regnal List as a "political fiction".
The contradictions may be seen clearly by calculating dates by different methods from various sources. The first event in West Saxon history whose date can be regarded as reasonably certain is the baptism of Cynegils, which occurred in the late 630s, perhaps as late as 640. The Chronicle dates Cerdic's arrival to 495, but adding up the lengths of the reigns as given in the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List leads to the conclusion that Cerdic's reign might have started in 532, a difference of 37 years. Neither 495 nor 532 may be treated as reliable; however, the latter date relies on the presumption that the Regnal List is correct in presenting the Kings of Wessex as having succeeded one another, with no omitted kings, and no joint kingships, and that the durations of the reigns are correct as given. None of these presumptions may be made safely.
The sources also are inconsistent on the length of Ceawlin's reign. The Chronicle gives it as thirty-two years, from 560 to 592, but the manuscripts of the Regnal List disagree: different copies give it as seven or seventeen years. David Dumville's detailed study of the Regnal List finds that it originally dated the arrival of the West Saxons in England to 532, and favours seven years as the earliest claimed length of Ceawlin's reign, with dates of 581–588 proposed. Dumville suggests that Ceawlin's reign length was then inflated to help extend the longevity of the Cerdicing dynasty further back into the past and that Ceawlin's reign specifically was extended because he is mentioned by Bede, giving him a status which led later West Saxon historians to conclude that he deserved a more impressive-looking reign.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 133.David N. Dumville, 'The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Chronology of Early Wessex', Peritia, 4 (1985), 21–66 (pp. 58-59, 62-63). The sources do agree that Ceawlin is the son of Cynric and he usually is named as the father of Cuthwine.See the "Genealogical Tables" in the appendices to Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There is one discrepancy in this case: the entry for 685 in the [A] version of the Chronicle assigns Ceawlin a son, Cutha, but in the 855 entry in the same manuscript, Cutha is listed as the son of Cuthwine. Cutha also is named as Ceawlin's brother in the [E] and [F] versions of the Chronicle, in the 571 and 568 entries, respectively.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 18–19. For tables showing the variations in the Wessex genealogy, see also figures 3 and 4 in Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 223–224.
Whether Ceawlin is a descendant of Cerdic is a matter of debate. Subgroupings of different West Saxon lineages give the impression of separate groups, of which Ceawlin's line is one. Some of the problems in the Wessex genealogies may have come about because of efforts to integrate Ceawlin's line with the other lineages: it became very important to the West Saxons to be able to trace the ancestors of their rulers back to Cerdic.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 133, gives this argument in some detail. Another reason for doubting the literal nature of these early genealogies is that the etymology of the names of several early members of the dynasty does not appear to be Germanic, as would be expected in the names of leaders of an apparently Anglo-Saxon dynasty. The name Ceawlin has no convincing Old English etymology; it seems more likely to be of British origin."Records of the West Saxon dynasties survive in versions which have been subject to later manipulation, which may make it all the more significant that some of the founding 'Saxon' fathers have British names: Cerdic, Ceawlin, Cenwalh". in: Hills, C., Origins of the English, Duckworth (2003), p. 105. Also "The names Cerdic, Ceawlin and Caedwalla, all in the genealogy of the West Saxon kings, are apparently British." in: Ward-Perkins, B., Why did the Anglo-Saxons not become more British? The English Historical Review 115.462 (June 2000), 513–33: p513.
The earliest sources do not use the term "West Saxon". According to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the term is interchangeable with the Gewisse. The term "West Saxon" appears only in the late seventh century, after the reign of Cædwalla.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 48, 223
West Saxon expansion
Ultimately, the kingdom of Wessex occupied the southwest of England, but the initial stages in this expansion are not apparent from the sources. Cerdic's landing, whenever it is to be dated, seems to have been near the Isle of Wight, and the annals record the conquest of the island in 530. In 534, according to the Chronicle, Cerdic died and his son Cynric took the throne; the Chronicle adds that "they gave the Isle of Wight to their nephews, Stuf and Wihtgar".Note that the name "Wight" is derived from the Romano-British "Vectis', not from "Wihtgar"; see Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 16. These records are in direct conflict with Bede, who states that the Isle of Wight was settled by Jutes, not Saxons; the archaeological record is somewhat in favour of Bede on this.Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 22–23.
Subsequent entries in the Chronicle give details of some of the battles by which the West Saxons won their kingdom. Ceawlin's campaigns are not given as near the coast. They range along the Thames Valley and beyond, as far as Surrey in the east and the mouth of the Severn in the west. Ceawlin clearly is part of the West Saxon expansion, but the military history of the period is difficult to understand. In what follows the dates are as given in the Chronicle, although, as noted above, these are earlier than now thought accurate.
556: